A timeline chart of how Linux distributions forked. The three largest trees are (from top) Debian, SLS and Red Hat.
Undated
The many varieties of
proprietaryUnix in the 1980s and 1990s — almost all derived from
AT&T Unix under licence and all called "Unix", but increasingly mutually incompatible. SeeUNIX wars.
Most
Linux distributions are descended from other distributions, most being traceable back to
Debian,
Red Hat or
Softlanding Linux System (see image right). Since most of the content of a distribution is free and open source software, ideas and software interchange freely as is useful to the individual distribution. Merges (e.g.,
United Linux or
Mandriva) are rare.
NeoOffice, a fork of
OpenOffice.org, with an incompatible license (GPL rather than LGPL), due to disagreements about licensing and about the best method to
port OpenOffice.org to
Mac OS X.
WineX (later Cedega), was a proprietary fork of
Wine.
XOrg, from
XFree86, in order to adopt a more open development model and due to concerns over the latter's change to a license many distributors found unacceptable.
2005
Audacious, from Beep Media Player to continue work on the old version of that project.
Joomla, from
Mambo due to concerns over project structure.
Claws Mail, from
Sylpheed, due to perceived slowness in accepting enhancements.
2006
Adempiere, a community maintained fork of
Compiere 2.5.3b, due to disagreement with commercial and technical direction of Compiere Inc.
Xonotic, from
Nexuiz, after that project was taken proprietary.
Mageia, from
Mandriva Linux, due to financial uncertainty and the layoff by Edge-IT, a Mandriva subsidiary employing many of the corporate staff working on the Mandriva distribution
Jenkins, from
Hudson (2011), due to
Oracle Corporation's perceived neglect of the project's infrastructure and disagreements over use of the name on non-Oracle-maintained infrastructure.
A timeline chart of how Linux distributions forked. The three largest trees are (from top) Debian, SLS and Red Hat.
Undated
The many varieties of
proprietaryUnix in the 1980s and 1990s — almost all derived from
AT&T Unix under licence and all called "Unix", but increasingly mutually incompatible. SeeUNIX wars.
Most
Linux distributions are descended from other distributions, most being traceable back to
Debian,
Red Hat or
Softlanding Linux System (see image right). Since most of the content of a distribution is free and open source software, ideas and software interchange freely as is useful to the individual distribution. Merges (e.g.,
United Linux or
Mandriva) are rare.
NeoOffice, a fork of
OpenOffice.org, with an incompatible license (GPL rather than LGPL), due to disagreements about licensing and about the best method to
port OpenOffice.org to
Mac OS X.
WineX (later Cedega), was a proprietary fork of
Wine.
XOrg, from
XFree86, in order to adopt a more open development model and due to concerns over the latter's change to a license many distributors found unacceptable.
2005
Audacious, from Beep Media Player to continue work on the old version of that project.
Joomla, from
Mambo due to concerns over project structure.
Claws Mail, from
Sylpheed, due to perceived slowness in accepting enhancements.
2006
Adempiere, a community maintained fork of
Compiere 2.5.3b, due to disagreement with commercial and technical direction of Compiere Inc.
Xonotic, from
Nexuiz, after that project was taken proprietary.
Mageia, from
Mandriva Linux, due to financial uncertainty and the layoff by Edge-IT, a Mandriva subsidiary employing many of the corporate staff working on the Mandriva distribution
Jenkins, from
Hudson (2011), due to
Oracle Corporation's perceived neglect of the project's infrastructure and disagreements over use of the name on non-Oracle-maintained infrastructure.